Abstract:

The accessibility of transportation systems plays a major part in determining whether persons with disabilities can participate as active members of a society. Improving accessibility requires an understanding of the issues faced by persons with disabilities and a means to measure the impact of improvements.

The first goal of this thesis is to identify the challenges persons with reduced mobility face when traveling on a tramway system. The second goal is to propose improvements to the indicators used to measure the level of access of a tramway system. The third goal is to propose solutions to the identified issues.

The work investigated these questions through a case study of the tramway system in Helsinki, Finland. The central challenges to accessibility in the tramway system were identified through semi-structured interviews and a passenger survey.

Stop placement, layout and equipment were found to have a major impact on accessibility. Regular snowfall and freezing temperatures were found to present additional challenges compared to tramway systems in more temperate climates.

Vehicles with low-floor entry were found to be much more accessible than older high-floored vehicles. However, usability issues in the folding ramps installed in newer vehicle models present challenges to persons who use a wheelchair or a walker. A survey was conducted among tram drivers to investigate the use practices of these boarding assistance systems.

The work proposes a set of indicators to measure and classify the accessibility of both stops and vehicles respectively, based on a literature review of best practices.The work also discusses some accessibility improvements for stops and vehicles, taking into account the constraints set by the climate of Helsinki. A more thorough assessment of potential stop improvements requires more detailed data than is currently available.Transportsystemens tillgänglighet har ett stort inflytande på huruvida handikappade personer kan agera som aktiva medlemmar av samhället. Att förbättra tillgängligheten kräver en förståelse av de utmaninger som handikappade personer utsätts för, samt redskap för att mäta påverkan av åtgärder.